I definitely understand JMS feeling ill about the franchise idea, details, and even format that were stolen from him to make DS9. And it's probably one of my favored of the Trek series, too, because that blueprint was quite brilliant and original.

I find it interesting that you felt WWE to be kind of a side track, and I felt it was the logical place for the entire series to culminate and end. It really was the plot twist to beat all plot twists.

Wow, I never expected to find a B5 forum still alive! I just discovered that my favourite collection of B5 fanfics is gone for good, but then such a pleasant surprise!

On the topic, I also think that War Without End was an awesome episode. I remember trying to get my head around Valen being Sinclair when I just saw it, it was just so much more surprising and epic than everything I was used to in TV series at the time.

Crusade, on the other hand, seems like such a wasted opportunity. The best episode of the season, imho, was the one which was never filmed and only exists as a script. They took far too much time to hang around visiting planets of the week, instead of going to the arc, and the arc was always the main strength of B5.

I definitely understand JMS feeling ill about the franchise idea, details, and even format that were stolen from him to make DS9. And it's probably one of my favored of the Trek series, too, because that blueprint was quite brilliant and original.

I find it interesting that you felt WWE to be kind of a side track, and I felt it was the logical place for the entire series to culminate and end. It really was the plot twist to beat all plot twists.

I and I'd guess others that mention it ment "sidetrack" in terms of it relative to the story that had been developing at that point in the series which concerned the shadow war in the present and the breakaway from earth.

Yes, it was a sidetrack, I suppose. It was a way to kind of close off Sinclair's part of the story when it became apparent that he couldn't return to the show on a regular basis.

I assumed it was a jarring interruption of the major arc at that time just to make it all the more surprising. Shows you what I know about writing.

I think JMS certainly looks to use the supprize factor on his favour in making sure that the characters themselves are caught as off guard by it as the viewer.

As was said earlier in the thread the flash forward to Centauri Prime does play into the existing plot well well. Its basically the first step in revealing the shift in the story that's going to take place away from "will we beat this ultimate evil?" to "how, why and at what cost do we get though this?".

I think as well the timing of the episode is also down to the fact that it needs to be done before Z'Ha'Dum. Sheridan needs his flash forward to give him the motivation to go to Z'Ha'Dum, and if Sinclair had known about Lorien he may have been tempted to go to Z'Ha'Dum himself and end the war in the past.

I think as well the timing of the episode is also down to the fact that it needs to be done before Z'Ha'Dum. Sheridan needs his flash forward to give him the motivation to go to Z'Ha'Dum, and if Sinclair had known about Lorien he may have been tempted to go to Z'Ha'Dum himself and end the war in the past.

Beyond that I think Sinclair going back before the viewer really suspects the Vorlons of having ulterior motives makes sense, Ulkesh's rather cold arrival at B5 in the next episode to me seems to single the start of that. WWE is also the only point that there isn't actually a Vorlon on B5 before Ulkesh is killed, I think that helps with the story as well putting the heroes more on their own.

I think as well the timing of the episode is also down to the fact that it needs to be done before Z'Ha'Dum. Sheridan needs his flash forward to give him the motivation to go to Z'Ha'Dum, and if Sinclair had known about Lorien he may have been tempted to go to Z'Ha'Dum himself and end the war in the past.

That's an interesting idea. Sinclair seemed to work very cautiously around the entire issue of his travel back in time. He seemed completely faithful to the idea of not changing the future, how he truly had what you could call a "fate".

If he thought he could cut the the chase, though, would he have varied his strategy? As tempting as it would be, I suspect that the answer to that is "no".

The defeat came from the combined forces of all the alien races. Could the Vorlons have done it? Or did it take the combined forces that took another 1000 years of development, with Valen's added edge, that was the only possibility for breaking out of this horrific cycle?

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Originally Posted by Mororless

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Originally Posted by Springer

I think as well the timing of the episode is also down to the fact that it needs to be done before Z'Ha'Dum. Sheridan needs his flash forward to give him the motivation to go to Z'Ha'Dum, and if Sinclair had known about Lorien he may have been tempted to go to Z'Ha'Dum himself and end the war in the past.

Beyond that I think Sinclair going back before the viewer really suspects the Vorlons of having ulterior motives makes sense, Ulkesh's rather cold arrival at B5 in the next episode to me seems to single the start of that. WWE is also the only point that there isn't actually a Vorlon on B5 before Ulkesh is killed, I think that helps with the story as well putting the heroes more on their own.

Yes, I also noticed that the moment we knew who Valen was, suddenly the Vorlon ambassador was extremely short-tempered with humanity. The placement of the story did work perfectly.

How can you come up with something that fits so well, and is so interesting as an episode itself, all in crisis mode because of a terrible thing happening to your absolutely key actor in the entire series?

I can understand how writing the vast majority of B5 really took its toll on JMS's health.

That's an interesting idea. Sinclair seemed to work very cautiously around the entire issue of his travel back in time. He seemed completely faithful to the idea of not changing the future, how he truly had what you could call a "fate".

If he thought he could cut the the chase, though, would he have varied his strategy? As tempting as it would be, I suspect that the answer to that is "no".

The defeat came from the combined forces of all the alien races. Could the Vorlons have done it? Or did it take the combined forces that took another 1000 years of development, with Valen's added edge, that was the only possibility for breaking out of this horrific cycle?

I think he might have been torn – change the future and he could alter circumstances meaning he never travels back to become Valen, thus causing a paradox. But at the same time if he knew he could end the threat of the First Ones a 1000 years early, and prevent all the death that was to follow, I think Sinclair might have. The meeting with Lorien would have been interesting. Sinclair had plenty of things to die for – what would he have to live for?

Also, Walkabout was initially meant to air before War Without End, but they changed the production schedule so the two parts of WWE wouldn't get split up, according to JMS on the Lurker's Guide. Also in To Dream in the City of Sorrows, Sinclair writes his message to Garibaldi as a warning about the Vorlons – keep your friends close and your enemies closer – "Stay close to the Vorlon". So if we take that as canon it means Sinclair was already uncertain about the Vorlons. But yes, somehow it all came together rather neatly :-)

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Originally Posted by hypatia

How can you come up with something that fits so well, and is so interesting as an episode itself, all in crisis mode because of a terrible thing happening to your absolutely key actor in the entire series?

I can understand how writing the vast majority of B5 really took its toll on JMS's health.

Sometimes in a creative process being up against it and under pressure can bring the best results. As a writer, he was probably in his element, I reckon. As a producer, it was probably a nightmare for him making it work!

I always took "stay close to the Vorlon" as simply advice that Kosh was a powerful ally against the Shadows. Even if Sinclair had some deeper knowledge of the Vorlons it wouldn't really make sense to be critical of Kosh who had a very different mindset to the rest of his race(or at least to the overall actions we see from them).

One thing that always interested me was that dispite seemingly being forced on JMS the shift from Sinclair to Sheridan just seems so natural. I'm not just talking about the hints at Sinclair being Valen early in the show but of the way his character was written. Whilst he has some issues with survivors guilt to me what stands out is how "enlightened" he is relative to Sheridan right from the start. He's really already turned his back on being a "career solider" or even fighting specifically for earth in favour of fighting for the greater good with a good deal of moral insight as to how to achieve this.

I spose that could just have been a different intension for his lead character from JMS at first but I think that by having a switch to Sheridan being a character finding his way a bit more he really does sell the "one who was" and the" one who will be" not just in terms of plot but in terms of the characters themselves. That is you buy that Sinclair was even early on in the series closer to the end of his personal story than Sheridan was when he appears.